In traditional Horizontal Directional Drilling (“HDD”) applications, a pilot hole is drilled in the ground on a general horizontal path by a HDD machine. The HDD machine rotates and thrusts a drill bit attached to the end of a series of drill pipes, known as the drill string, to complete the pilot hole. Once the pilot hole is complete, a reamer or “hole opener” is pulled back through the pilot hole, increasing the size of the pilot hole so that a particular sized product (e.g., a conduit) can be positioned within the hole.
However, for certain applications, the product that is being placed within the ground is smaller than, or the same size as, the pilot hole. This allows the product to be pulled back through, and positioned within, the pilot hole without the need for reaming. This is advantageous to the operator as time can be saved by not having to ream the pilot hole. To pull product back through the pilot hole, a drill bit, or a portion thereof, is often removed from the drill string to allow for the attachment of a pullback device that interfaces with the product that is being positioned within the pilot hole. However, this process can be time consuming and requires additional tooling to complete the overall pullback process.
Therefore, improvements are desired.